


and death will never leave us

by freakazoid



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: "Canon" Compliant, 90s comics 5 life, 90s continuity, Angst, Gen, Hal Jordan is Parallax, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Poor Ollie, hal/ollie bffs, why is all my good work at 2 am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 02:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freakazoid/pseuds/freakazoid
Summary: How are you supposed to tell your best friend's family that he's dead?Oliver doesn't know, but he feels obligated to try.





	and death will never leave us

            Dinah leans over from the passenger’s seat, concern in her eyes. “You sure you don’t want backup?”

            Oliver shakes his head. “No, I—this is my job.” He smiles weakly at her. “Thanks, though.”

            The former residents of Coast City are crammed into government apartment housing while the city is rebuilt. Oliver double-checks the address as he steps into the slightly rundown entryway, feeling suddenly and intensely out of place in the expensive suit he’s dressed up in for the occasion. The secretary eyes him with mild interest.

            “I’m here for the Jordans,” he says. “Apartment 350?”

            She consults her computer for several seconds. “Third floor.” He forgets to thank her as he steps into the elevator, pointedly ignoring the other passengers as he taps at the buttons.

            Oliver checks the note he made again right before he knocks on the door. No answer. He knocks again. A woman answers the door, giving a window into a small apartment crammed with furniture. She looks harried. Behind her, a young girl plays with dolls. She glances him up and down with raised eyebrows. “Hello?”

            “Are you Mrs. Jordan? Is your husband in?” He almost wishes she’d disavow it, but no.

            “That’s me. There something you need?”

            Oliver licks his lips. “I . . . I’m a friend of Hal’s. I came here to talk to you about him.”

            _Was._

            “You’re—Barry?” she guesses.

            He shakes his head. _Barry. Good Lord, Barry. Maybe if I was Barry—well . . ._

“No, wait,” she corrects, staring at him more intently. “You look . . . oh my god, you’re Ollie Queen!”

            “Yeah. I’m here to talk to you about—”

            “I can’t believe Hal never told us he knows Oliver Queen. Sweetie! Come here! You’ll never believe this!” The man who appears in the doorway looks enough like Hal to make Oliver bite his tongue. Mrs. Jordan turns to him. “Meet Oliver Queen, a friend of Hal’s, apparently.” She laughs in disbelief.

            “I’m, um, I’m Jack Jordan,” the man says. He holds out a hand. Oliver shakes.

            “Oliver Queen. I—I’m a friend of Hal’s. I thought . . .” he pauses. “I need to talk to you about him.”

            “Is he missing again?” Jack asks. “Normally he gives us the heads up, but sometimes . . .”

            “Is he in trouble?” Mrs. Jordan asks.

            “I . . .” A cocktail of emotions broils in Oliver’s gut, guilt and shame and grief. He takes a deep breath. “I think you’d better sit down.”

            Any joviality is instantly taken out of the atmosphere. “Oh! Oh, how rude I’ve been, come in, sit down,” Mrs. Jordan says nervously.

            “What happened?” Jack asks as Oliver closes the door behind him. Their child, maybe seven or eight, now stares at the group over the edge of a purple couch.

            “Hal . . .” The words almost don’t come as he stares at drawn, expectant faces. “Hal’s—he’s dead. Hal’s dead. I’m sorry.” _I’m sorry. I killed him. I couldn’t save him._

_I was his best friend and I killed him._

Mr. Jordan’s teeth are clenched. Mrs. Jordan stares with a slightly opened mouth. Their child regards them both.

            “I’m sorry,” Oliver repeats. It sounds hollow even to his ears.

            “Oh my god,” Mrs. Jordan murmurs. “Oh my god.”

            “What happened?” Jack repeats, voice rough.

            Oliver hesitates. “He—there was—he was shot. A bullet.” _An arrow._ “I saw it happen.” _I did it._ “I couldn’t stop it.” _I had to do it._ “I’m sorry.” _I’m so sorry._

            “Oh my god,” Mrs. Jordan repeats. “How could— _shot_ —he was always so . . .”

            “He got—mixed up in some bad things. I tried to—I couldn’t . . .” Oliver’s eyes burn. He curses at himself, blinks his eyes.

            “What bad things?” Jack demands.

            “It’s—complicated.” Oliver clears his throat. “We’re a club, hobbyists mostly—me and him and some other people and that’s where I knew him from. He . . .” _How do I tell his only remaining family that he’s a killer? A murderer? That he snapped, went insane?_

“He what,” Mr. Jordan says.

            “He was . . . depressed, after Coast City. After what happened. Took it hard, and . . . he was angrier. He wouldn’t talk to us.” _Lies, lies, lies._ “I’m not sure exactly but—he was trying to get information, I think, on what happened. He did some stupid things, faced down some people he shouldn’t have. We tried to talk him out of whatever it was but he wouldn’t listen. Got into a fight with someone I didn’t know.” A pause. “I . . . saw him die. You won’t—there isn’t a body. He fell into the river.” The story is disjointed, strange, unbelievable. “I have pictures of us. I can prove I knew him.”

            “Uncle Hal’s . . . gone?” The eight-year-old stares up at him, eyes wide.

            “I’m sorry,” Oliver says softly.

            “Lord,” Mr. Jordan says. There are tears on Mrs. Jordan’s face now, and Oliver is suddenly even more uncomfortable, even more out of place.

            “I thought—I thought you should know. I didn’t want you to go on thinking that he was missing and—I thought you deserved closure.” Oliver is inching towards the door, trying to escape the pain.

            “Thank you,” Mrs. Jordan chokes out.

            “I’m sorry,” Oliver says, again, like it will make things better. “He was . . . a good friend. He didn’t deserve that.” _Hal Jordan deserved to grow old and raise a family and be remembered as a hero. He didn’t deserve to spend the last eight months of his life angry and guilty and crazy and in pain._ “He was a good man.”

            _Lie?_

Oliver Queen closes the door on a weeping family, feeling every inch a tired old man.

**Author's Note:**

> god damn i love parallax and green lantern after 2005 can eat my entire ass. thanks geoff. evil hal forever, angsty ollie forever!!  
> relevant note: hal, at this time, is not actually dead. oliver's arrow blasted him and kyle into space and to oa, where kyle blew up the planet and assumed hal died. he didn't, actually, but by the time emerald night came around and hal actually died, ollie had already died.


End file.
